GIFT  OF 


Contents 

1  Report  of  the  Senate  finance  committee  relative  to  the 

endowment  of  the  State  university,  1870. 

2  Statement  of  income  and  expenditures  for  the  year  end- 

ing May  31st,  1874. 

3  Report  of  the  Finance  committee  to  the  Board  of  Begents 

Dec.  14,  1874. 

4  Report  to  the  Finance  committee  of  the  Board  of  regents 

1876. 

5  Statement  of  Finance  committee.  May  27,  1878. 

6  Report  of  the  Committee  of  finance  and  audit.  June 

1887. 

7  Report  of  the  Finance  committee,  June,  1889. 

8  Annual  report  of  the  ^inance  committee,  June  13,  1893  • 

9  Annual  report  of  the  Committee  on  finance  and  audit. 

May  15,  1895. 

10  Annual  report  of  the  Committee  on  finance  and  audit. 
,.   July  14,  1896. 


11  Report  of  Committee  on  finance  and  audit...  May  25, 
1897 

* 


12  Resort  of  ^inance  committee,  Oct.  9,  1899 

13  Budget  for  1909-1910. 

14  Budget  for  1912-13. 


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REPORT 


SENATE  FINANCE  COMMITTEE 


RELATIVE    TO    THE 


ENDOWMENT  OF  THE  STATE  UNIVERSITY. 


SACRAMENTO: 

D.    W.    GELWICKS,    STATE    PRINTER. 

1870. 


Gilt 


E  P  O  E  T 


SENATE  FINANCE  COMMITTEE 

ILLATIVE    TO    THE 

ENDOWMENT  OF  THE  STATE  UNIVERSITY. 


533436 


REPORT. 


Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  The  Finance  Committee,  to  whom  was  referred  Sen- 
ate Bill  No.  355 — entitled  an  Act  for  the  endowment  of  the  State  Uni- 
versity— beg  leave,  respectfully,  to  report  that  they  have  had  the  same 
under  consideration  and  report  the  bill  back,  with  amendments,  and 
recommend  its  passage. 

The  committee  have  made  a  full  investigation  into  the  financial  condi- 
tion of  the  University  and  of  its  needs  for  some  years  to  come,  and  they 
are  satisfied  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  annum,  provided  for 
in  this  bill,  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  tide  and  overflowed  lands, 
is  necessary  to  place  the  institution  on  a  secure  footing,  and  make  it,  as 
it  was  intended  to  be,  a  credit  to  the  State  and  the  culminating  feature 
of  our  system  of  public  schools. 

The  University  is  at  present  temporarily  located  in  a  frame  building 
of  moderate  size,  situated  in  the  Town  of  Oakland.  The  building  is 
rented,  and  is  inferior  in  every  respect  to  many  of  the  Grammar  school 
houses  in  the  towns  of  this  State. 

It  is  clear  that  this  arrangement  cannot  long  continue  with  safety  to 
the  efficiency  and  success  of- the  institution,  and  that  suitable  buildings 
must  be  speedily  erected  to  meet  its  growing  wants  and  to  accommodate 
the  large  number  of  students  who  it  is  known  are  preparing  to  enter  at 
the  beginning  of  the  next  term,  and  the  still  larger  number  that  it  is 
confidently  expected  will  seek  admission  by  the  time  the  new  buildings 
can  be  completed. 

The  University  owns  property  of  great  value,  which  has  been  acquired 
at  an  expense  to  the  State  of  less  than  one-eighth  of  its  present  worth. 
This  property  consists  of  a  beautiful  tract  of  two  hundred  acres  of  land, 
situated  at  Berkeley,  four  miles  north  of  Oakland,  highly  improved  by 
the  setting  out  of  large  numbers  of  useful  and  ornamental  trees  and  the 
construction  of  numerous  roads,  walks  and  avenues;  of  all  the  waters 
outside  of  this  tract  that  can  be  made  available,  together  with  dams, 
flumes,  reservoir,  pipes,  etc.,  to  convey  the  waters  upon  the  University 
grounds  ;  of  a  large  and  choice  selection  of  philosophical  and  chemical 
apparatus,  sufficient  to  illustrate  all  the  branches  of  science  and  equal  in 
quality  to  the  collections  of  the  oldest  and  best  equipped  universities  in 


the  United  States;  of  a  valuable  technical  library,  and  the  nucleus  of  a 
general  library. 

All  this  property,  estimated  to  be  worth  from  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  has  cost 
the  State  less  than  thirty-five  thousand  dollars. 

To  make  it  available,  to  elevate  the  surroundings  of  the  University 
above  the  grade  of  a  second  class  Grammar  school,  and  to  accommodate 
the  hundreds  of  students  that  we  may  reasonably  expect  will  soon  be 
applying  for  admission,  it  is  necessary  that  the  University  put  up  its  own 
buildings  on  its  own  property.  Towards  this,  the  Eegents  have  at  present 
available  resources  amounting  to  seventy-seven  thousand  six  hundred 
and  fifty-five  dollars,  and  during  the  year  expect  to  receive  from  the  sale 
of  tide  lands  the  further  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  making  a 
total  of  disposable  funds,  present  and  prospective,  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-seven  thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty-five  dollars.  Out  of  this 
amount  must  be  paid  the  salaries  of  the  Professors  and  officers  and 
incidental  expenses,  amounting  to  the  fixed  sum,  per  annum,  of  forty-five 
thousand  six  hundred  and  ninety-six  dollars. 

This  would  require  ninety-one  thousand  three  hundred  and  ninety-two 
dollars  during  the  years  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy  and  eighteen 
hundred  and  seventy-one,  before  the  next  meeting  of  the  Legislature, 
and  would  leave  but  eighty-six  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty-three 
dollars  with  which  to  erect  and  equip  the  new  building,  a  sum,  of  course, 
altogether  insufficient.  Even  if  it  were  used  as  far  as  it  would  go,  it 
would  leave  the  buildings  in  an  unfinished  and  useless  condition,  and  the 
University  without  a  dollar  thereafter  to  pay  its  necessary  current 
expenses.  If,  however,  the  bill  under  consideration  should  be  passed, 
securing  for  some  years  to  come  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  per 
annum  wherewith  to  pay  the  fixed  expenses  of  the  University,  nearly 
ail  the  present  available  resources  (one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  fifty-five  dollars)  could  be  used  for  the  con- 
struction and  equipment  of  the  buildings.  This  sum,  with  judicious 
management,  we  are  assured,  will  provide  all  the  accommodations 
pressingly  needed,  without  further  assistance  from  the  State.  If  the 
endowment  asked  for  in  this  bill  is  refused,  the  construction  of  the 
buildings  must  be  stopped,  for  it  would  be  folly  to  expend  the  only  avail- 
able resources,  of  the  institution  in  building,  and  then  be  compelled  to 
discharge  the  Professors  for  the  want  of  means  to  pay  them.  The  only 
alternative  would  be  to  continue  the  University  in  the  present  modest, 
frame,  rented  school  house,  and  this  would  be  death  to  the  institution. 
Our  University  must  be  first  class  in  every  particular,  or  it  must  sink 
into  insignificence.  No  medium  position  is  possible.  It  must  be  better 
than  any  of  the  other  institutions  of  learning  on  this  coast,  in  the  ability 
of  its  faculty,  in  the  excellence  and  convenience  of  its  buildings,  in  its 
library,  its  apparatus,  its  equipments  generally,  and  in  the  beauty, 
attractiveness  and  advantages  of  its  location  and  its  site.  If  deficient 
or  inferior — indeed,  if  only  equal — in  these  particulars  to  other  colleges, 
it  must  go  down.  It  must,  therefore,  have  suitable  buildings ;  and  these, 
we  are  convinced,  cannot  be  obtained  unless  the  endowment  bill  is 
passed.  The  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres  of  land  granted  by 
Congress  to  this  State,  for  the  establishment  of  a  College  of  Agriculture 
and  the  Mechanic  Arts,  have  been  appropriated  by  law  to  the  support  of 
the  University,  which  embraces  five  colleges — one  of  letters  and  four  of 
arts;  among  them  a  College  of  Agriculture,  a  College  of  the  Mechanic 
Arts,  and  a  College  of  Mining  and  Metallurgy.  But  a  small  portion  of 


these  lands  has  been  sold,  and  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  locate  the 
great  body  of  the  grant  in  the  most  distant  and  sparsely  settled  portions 
of  the  State,  because  nowhere  else  could  unoccupied  public  lands  be 
found.  These  locations  must  be  held  for  a  market,  and  no  considerable 
revenue  can  be  expected  from  their  sale  for  four  or  five  years  to  come. 
Meanwhile  our  University  must  be  maintained,  and  the  endowment  bill 
seems  the  most  feasible  and  least  burdensome  means  of  providing  the 
necessary  income.  It  is  far  preferable  to  an  annual  appropriation  of 
fifty  thousand  dollars  out  of  the  current  revenues  of  the  State,  derived 
from  the  taxation  of  the  people.  If,  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  years,  it 
should  be  found  that  the  University  can  be  sustained  by  the  revenues 
derived  from  the  sale  of  its  lands,  the  Legislature  can  repeal  the  endow- 
ment bill  and  transfer  the  funds  set  apart  by  it  into  the  State  treasury, 
to  be  devoted  to  other  uses.  In  order  to  secure  such  control  over  the 
endowment  by  the  Legislature,  and  to  remove  all  doubts  as  to  its  power 
to  revoke  it,  your  committee  have  recommended  that  the  bill  be  amended 
by  striking  out  the  words  "perpetual"  and  "forever,"  in  the  first  line  of 
section  two.  Thus  amended,  we  recommend  that  the  bill  be  passed. 

In  conclusion,  your  committee  would  represent  that  the  University  is 
the  fulfilment  and  the  complement  of  the  common  schools  of  this  State. 
It  is  absolutely  free  to  all  properly  qualified  applicants;  and  it  is  with 
pardonable  pride  that  our  young  State  can  point  to  the  fact  that  she  is 
the  first  to  provide  the  means  whereby  the  son  of  the  poorest  parents 
may  receive  a  thorough  education,  from  the  Primary  school,  through  all 
the  grades,  up  to  the  University,  and  there  obtain  all  the  benefits  of  the 
highest  culture,  without  charge.  Should  narrow  views  prevail,  and  our 
University  be  permitted  to  linger  for  a  little  while  through  a  sickly 
existence,  and  then  die  for  the  want  of  support,  and  we  be  compelled  to 
announce  to  the  world  that  its  doors  are  closed,  and  to  scud  forth  our 
young  men  into  foreign  lands  to  be  educated,  it  would  bring  shame  and 
humiliation  to  every  Californian,  and  make  us  a  scoff  and  a  by-word 
among  the  enlightened  people  of  the  world. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 

E.  M.  BANVARD, 
WILLIAM  MINIS, 
B.  D.  WILSON, 
GEORGE  C.  PERKINS. 


NON-CIRCULATING  BOOK 


533436 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


